# PatentWorld — Complete Content Guide > An interactive data exploration of 9.36 million US patents spanning 50 years of global innovation (1976–2025). Data from PatentsView / USPTO, accessed February 2026. - URL: https://patentworld.vercel.app - Author: Saerom (Ronnie) Lee, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania - License: CC BY 4.0 - llms.txt: https://patentworld.vercel.app/llms.txt ## Act 1: The System ### Chapter 1: Patent Count (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/system-patent-count/) Annual patent volume and grant pendency. Annual US patent grants (all types) increased more than five-fold from approximately 70,000 in 1976 to 374,000 in 2024, peaking at 393,000 in 2019. Average grant pendency peaked at 3.8 years in 2010 before moderating. ### Chapter 2: Patent Quality (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/system-patent-quality/) Claims, scope, citations, originality, and knowledge flow indicators. Average claims per patent doubled from 9.4 to a peak of 18.9 in 2005. Forward citations rose to a peak of 6.4 in 2019. System-wide originality rose from 0.09 to 0.25 while generality fell from 0.28 to 0.15. ### Chapter 3: Patent Fields (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/system-patent-fields/) Technology classes, field-level dynamics, and quality by technology area. CPC sections G and H gained 30 percentage points of share over five decades, rising from 27% to 57% of utility patent grants. ### Chapter 4: Convergence (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/system-convergence/) Cross-domain technology convergence. Multi-section patents rose from approximately 21% to 40% of utility patent grants by 2024. The G-H convergence pair rose from 12.5% to 37.5% of cross-section patents. ### Chapter 5: The Language of Innovation (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/system-language/) Semantic analysis of 8.45 million patent abstracts. Computing and semiconductor topics grew from 12% to 33% of all patents since 1976. Patent novelty (median entropy) rose 6.4% from 1.97 to 2.10. ### Chapter 6: Patent Law & Policy (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/system-patent-law/) Legislation and jurisprudence shaping the patent system. Twenty-one legislative and judicial events from 1980 to 2025 are associated with observable shifts in filing patterns. Key events include Bayh-Dole Act (1980), AIA (2011), and Alice Corp. (2014). ### Chapter 7: Public Investment (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/system-public-investment/) Government funding and the Bayh-Dole Act. Government-funded patents rose from 1,294 in 1980 to 8,359 in 2019. HHS/NIH leads with 55,587 patents, followed by Defense (43,736) and Energy (33,994). ## Act 2: The Organizations ### Chapter 8: Assignee Composition (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/org-composition/) Corporate, foreign, and country-level composition. Corporate assignees grew from 94% to 99% of US patent grants. Foreign assignees surpassed US-based assignees around 2007. Japan accounts for 1.44 million US patents. ### Chapter 9: Organizational Patent Count (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/org-patent-count/) Patent output rankings and trajectories. IBM leads with 161,888 cumulative grants. Samsung peaked at 9,716 annual grants in 2024. The top 100 organizations hold 31–39% of corporate patents. ### Chapter 10: Organizational Patent Quality (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/org-patent-quality/) Citation impact, blockbuster patents, and quality metrics. Amazon holds the highest blockbuster rate at 6.7%. Microsoft leads in average citations at 30.7. Citation half-lives range from 6.3 to 14.3 years. ### Chapter 11: Patent Portfolio (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/org-patent-portfolio/) Diversification, competitive proximity, and portfolio transitions. 50 companies cluster into 8 industry groups. Mitsubishi Electric reached peak Shannon entropy of 7.1 across 287 CPC subclasses. 51 technology pivots detected across 20 companies. ### Chapter 12: Interactive Company Profiles (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/org-company-profiles/) Unified patent histories, portfolios, quality trends, and strategy profiles. Interactive dashboards for each organization across five analytical dimensions. ## Act 3: The Inventors ### Chapter 13: Top Inventors (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/inv-top-inventors/) Superstar concentration and prolific inventors. The top 5% of inventors accounted for 63.2% of patent grants in 2024. The most prolific inventor holds 6,709 patents. ### Chapter 14: Generalist vs. Specialist (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/inv-generalist-specialist/) Technology specialization patterns. Specialist inventors rose from 20% to 48% of the inventor workforce. Generalists earn 9.3 forward citations vs. 8.2 for specialists. ### Chapter 15: Serial Inventors vs. New Entrants (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/inv-serial-new/) Career patterns and inventor survival. Annual first-time entries peaked at 140,490 in 2019. Only 37–51% survive past five career years. ### Chapter 16: Gender and Patenting (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/inv-gender/) Gender composition and the gender innovation gap. Female inventor share rose from 2.8% in 1976 to 14.9% in 2025. Chemistry leads cumulative female representation at 14.6% (WIPO sector) / 15.7% (CPC section). ### Chapter 17: Team Size and Collaboration (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/inv-team-size/) The collaborative turn and team size effects. Average team size increased from 1.7 to 3.2 inventors. Solo-inventor share fell from 58% to 23% by 2025. ## Act 4: The Geography ### Chapter 18: Domestic Geography (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/geo-domestic/) State-level and city-level patent concentration. California accounts for 23.6% of all US patent grants with 992,708 patents. States exhibit distinctive specialization patterns. ### Chapter 19: International Geography (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/geo-international/) Cross-border patterns and country-level quality. Japan leads foreign filings with approximately 1.45 million US patents (by inventor country). China grew from 299 filings in 2000 to 30,695 in 2024. ## Act 5: The Mechanics ### Chapter 20: Organizational Mechanics (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/mech-organizations/) Within-firm exploration, exploitation, and inter-firm knowledge flows. 11 of 20 major filers keep exploration below 5%. Balanced firms produce blockbusters at 2.3x the rate of specialists. ### Chapter 21: Inventor Mechanics (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/mech-inventors/) Co-invention networks, bridge inventors, and inter-firm mobility. 632 prolific inventors form 1,236 co-invention ties. International mobility rose from 1.3% to 5.1%. ### Chapter 22: Geographic Mechanics (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/mech-geography/) Cross-border collaboration and innovation diffusion. International co-invention increased from 1.0% in 1976 to 10.0% in 2025. US-China co-invention grew from 77 patents in 2000 to 2,749 in 2024. ## Act 6: Deep Dives (12 Technology Domains) ### Deep Dive Overview: Cross-Domain Comparison (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/deep-dive-overview/) A comparative overview of twelve technology domains with shared metric definitions, volume comparisons, quality benchmarks, and cross-domain spillover analysis. ### Chapter 23: 3D Printing & Additive Manufacturing (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/3d-printing/) Top-four concentration declined from 36% in 2005 to 11% by 2024. FDM patent expirations in 2009 coincided with broad-based competition entry. ### Chapter 24: Agricultural Technology (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/agricultural-technology/) Patent velocity nearly quadrupled from 7.4 patents/year (1970s) to 32.9 (2000s). Top-four concentration declined from 46.7% in 2014 to 32.8% by 2025. ### Chapter 25: Artificial Intelligence (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/ai-patents/) AI patent grants grew 5.7-fold from 5,201 in 2012 to 29,624 in 2023, reaching 9.4% of all US grants. IBM leads with 16,781 AI patents. ### Chapter 26: Autonomous Vehicles & ADAS (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/autonomous-vehicles/) Patent velocity rose 1.8-fold from 1990s to 2010s entrants. Subfield diversity reached near-maximum entropy of 0.97 by 2025. ### Chapter 27: Biotechnology & Gene Editing (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/biotechnology/) Achieved one of the lowest top-four concentrations among advanced technology domains (4.6% by 2025). Subfield diversity tripled from 0.32 to 0.94. ### Chapter 28: Blockchain & Decentralized Systems (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/blockchain/) Grants peaked in 2022 and subsequently declined, exhibiting a pronounced boom-bust cycle. Top-four concentration rose to 26.3% during the 2018 boom. ### Chapter 29: Cybersecurity (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/cybersecurity/) Top-four concentration declined from 32.4% in 1980 to 9.4% by 2025. Network security surpassed cryptography as the dominant subfield around 2003. ### Chapter 30: Digital Health & Medical Devices (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/digital-health/) Patent velocity jumped 3.4-fold from 1970s to 2010s entrants. Philips (2,909), Medtronic (2,302), and Intuitive Surgical (1,994) lead. ### Chapter 31: Green Innovation (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/green-innovation/) Battery and EV patents reached 7,363 and 5,818 grants respectively by 2024, surpassing renewable energy at 3,453. Samsung, Toyota, and GE lead. ### Chapter 32: Quantum Computing (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/quantum-computing/) Among the most concentrated domains alongside agricultural technology (CR4: 28.4% in 2025, down from 76.9% in 2003). ### Chapter 33: Semiconductors (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/semiconductors/) Distinctive among ACT 6 domains for sustained rising concentration (11.3% in 1977 to 32.6% in 2023). Entry velocity plateaued at 197 patents/year. ### Chapter 34: Space Technology (https://patentworld.vercel.app/chapters/space-technology/) Top-four concentration fluctuated between 4.9% and 36.7%, reflecting government-to-commercial transition. Satellite communications is now the dominant subfield. ## Data & Methodology - Source: PatentsView (patentsview.org), supported by USPTO - Data accessed: February 2026 - Coverage: 9,360,000+ granted US patents (utility, design, plant, reissue) - Period: 1976–2025 (through September 2025) - Processing: DuckDB (Python) on PatentsView bulk data - Classifications: CPC (Cooperative Patent Classification), WIPO technology fields - Quality metrics: Forward citations, originality index, generality index, claims, scope - Geographic data: Inventor and assignee locations, disambiguated by PatentsView - Gender inference: Name-based attribution with accuracy limitations for non-Western names - Network data: Citation links, co-inventor relationships, assignee collaboration